Microclimate Analyses for the Design of Building-Integrated Wind Turbines

This paper presents the insights gained by analyzing the microclimate associated with local wind patterns for the design of building-integrated wind turbines (BIWT). The wind environment around buildings is difficult to accurately predict and, as a result, can cause proposed building-integrated wind turbine designs to fall short of their expected performance. The study uses Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) data to perform site-level and microclimate-level analyses using computational fluid dynamics to analyze several proposed designs for a museum in Erie, Pennsylvania and a research facility in Philadelphia, PA. This data shows the importance of in-depth microclimatic studies of a building's site and affiliated environmental factors. These analyses can be used to lead a design team towards integrated aesthetic and functional design decisions that consider the complexities of site and building geometry and their effects on urban-level wind flow. This study explores the influence of the environment surrounding a building, with regards to BIWT performance. To improve BIWT performance, it is concluded that a symbiotic relationship between architect and building scientist should be emphasized during the architectural design process through the workflow defined in the paper. This workflow enables both the architect and engineer to create a dialogue that aides in the creation of a synergistic end result. This workflow can offer site-specific insight early in the design process that is important when working towards making well-informed design decisions, as it is important to identify necessary design changes early in order to avoid incurring expensive change-orders later on in the building's construction.